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U.S. Can’t Get Enough Of South African Cuisine

U.S. Can’t Get Enough Of South African Cuisine

In February, South African-American Warren Pala quit his New York City job in corporate technology and turned his part-time business, Braaitime, into a full-time operation making biltong, according to a report in TheExaminer.

He leased a larger warehouse, prepared to install a drying room that could produce 50,000 pounds of the cured, dried meat per month, and started getting his operation ready for retail sales.

Pala founded his meat company, Braaitime, about 10 years ago and produces about 10,000 pounds (4500 kilograms) of biltong a month. Pala likens biltong to beef prosciutto. It’s among the best loved of South African cuisine.

Biltong is not bull’s tongue, although some Americans mispronounce the name, and it is nothing like beef jerky.

Biltong is thin strips of salty, spicy meat that is the perfect snack, Pala told TheExaminer. It’s a pure shot of protein coveted by meat lovers, culture-hungry locals, South African immigrants, beer drinkers and Paleo Diet enthusiasts.

“I didn’t even know how to make it when I got here,” said Pala, who does business in Keansburg, New Jersey. “In South Africa, it’s everywhere… Now, I’m having jerky companies coming to me, buying the product and selling it all over the country.”

After reality TV show personalities from “Duck Dynasty” gave a shout out to Pala’s cured meats in October 2013, business really took off, he said. Before, local South African expats and customers from across the globe ordered Braaitime’s biltong on the Internet.

“But after that the business literally doubled, tripled, quadrupled,” Pala said.

Pala said he doesn’t use unnatural additives and other ingredients that major biltong producers have used back home. His biltong is free of gluten, MSG and nitrates.